Fire safety bill paves way for 35-storey parking lots; experts raise concerns

The amendment to the Maharashtra Fire Prevention and Life Safety Measures Act will allow a rise in the height of the professional educational institutions and parking lots to 45 metres and 100 metres respectively.

Mumbai: The state assembly on Thursday amended the fire safety bill and cleared the decks for high-rise parking lots of up to 35 storeys and professional colleges up to 15 storeys in Mumbai, Pune and surrounding areas. Experts, however, have raised red flags over the fire safety of the building around these parking lots that would have inflammable fuel.

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The amendment to the Maharashtra Fire Prevention and Life Safety Measures Act will allow a rise in the height of the professional educational institutions and parking lots to 45 metres and 100 metres respectively.

The height of the parking lots coming as part of the residential tower, however, cannot exceed the height of the building. The amendment in the bill allowing taller parking lots is being cited as an answer to the space crunch in the city.

As per a member of the drafting committee of the bill, they had suggested the height of the parking lot be restricted to 70 metres, however, the state government increased it to 100 metres.

“The rise in the height is not acceptable in cities like Mumbai where the density of population is high,” the member added. “The event of a fire could prove dangerous to the surrounding buildings as there is no restriction on the distance between buildings around it. The wind velocity may pose risk to the other buildings.”

Another officer from the fire brigade said that any incident in any such multi-storey parking could cause an inferno in case of a fire. “The fuel-filled vehicles could prove very dangerous in case of a fire. The taller the parking lot, the riskier it would be from a fire safety point of view. The parking space crunch in the city cannot justify risking the lives of the residents,” he added.

Former chief fire officer of Mumbai Fire Brigade, Hemant Parab, said that the parking lots will be allotted with stringent norms set alongside. “The permission for the parking lots to go vertical comes from the need to overcome the parking crunch in the city. Though lots are allowed to be up to 100 metres, only a few will be standalone and most of them are expected to be along the high rises. This means their society will have to maintain it following all norms. We have laid stricter norms for fire safety. The compliance of the rules and strict monitoring could be an issue, but it all depends on the due diligence of the people responsible for it,” he added.

The new bill has made it mandatory to have an IoT-enabled system which will have to be monitored by Building Management System (BMS) round the clock. The sensor-based system will monitor the water level in tanks, the condition of fire pumps near the water tank, the alarm system and the sprinkler system among others. The fire brigade will get alerts about the shortages and appropriate action will be taken against the societies, an official said.

Prabhat Rahangdale, former director of fire services said, “The use of new age technology, maintenance and monitoring of the firefighting system can effectively ensure the fire safety for highrises. The new bill has made it mandatory to maintain the fire fighting system intact.”